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Super Mario Galaxy
Super Mario Galaxy (スーパーマリオギャラクシー Sūpā Mario Gyarakushī) is a 3D platform game developed by Nintendo EAD Tokyo and published by Nintendo for the Wii. It was released in most regions in November 2007, and is the third 3D original platformer in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_%28series%29 Mario series], after Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine. The game follows the protagonist, Mario, on a quest to rescue Princess Peach from the game's primary antagonist, Bowser. Levels are galaxies filled with minor planets and worlds, while gameplay is updated with gravity effects and new power-ups. Super Mario Galaxy was first shown at E3 2006 and enjoyed a high level of pre-release awareness. The game has been hailed by several gaming websites as one of the best video games of all time and has won a BAFTA. GameRankings lists the game as the best reviewed Wii game and the second best reviewed game of all time. The game is the ninth best selling Wii game worldwide with sales of over 10.4 million. The sequel, Super Mario Galaxy 2, was announced at E3 2009, and was first released in May 2010. In 2011, Super Mario Galaxy was added to the Nintendo Selects collection of games. Gameplay Premise and Setting Super Mario Galaxy is set in outer space, where Mario travels from galaxy to galaxy in order to collect Power Stars, which are earned by completing galaxies or defeating enemies. Each galaxy contains a number of planets and other space matter for the player to explore. The game uses a new physics system that allows for a unique feature: each celestial object has its own gravitational force, allowing the player to completely circumnavigate rounded or irregular planetoids, walking sideways or upside down. The player can usually jump from one independent object and fall towards another one nearby. Though the main gameplay and physics are in 3D, there are several areas in the game in which the player's movements are restricted to a 2-dimensional plane, an element reminiscent of 2D Mario games. The game's main hub is the Comet Observatory, a spaceship which contains six themed domes that provide access to the forty-two galaxies available in the game. When the player first begins the game, access is available to only a few galaxies. However, as more Power Stars are collected, more galaxies become available to the player. Some galaxies are accessed through special means; for example, the star-shaped creatures called "Hungry Lumas" will transform into new galaxies once they are fed enough Star Bits (small, collectible objects that serve as weapons and currency in the game). The Hungry Lumas may also appear within the galaxy, and when they are fed enough Star Bits, they will transform into other planetary bodies which will contain some form of puzzle or challenge that rewards Mario with a Power Star when completed. When 120 Power Stars are collected, the player gains the ability to play through the game again as Mario's twin brother Luigi. Gameplay is slightly different while playing as Luigi, as some obstacles can be harder or easier to overcome due to Luigi's higher running speed and lower traction. Once 120 Power Stars are collected with both characters, the player is rewarded one additional challenge for Mario and Luigi to complete, as well as two commemorative pictures that can be sent to the Wii Message Board upon each brother completing the challenge. There are five "Prankster Comets" that appear periodically ("Speedy", "Daredevil", "Cosmic", "Fast Foe" and "Purple"). When one of them comes into orbit with a galaxy, a special challenge is initiated that leads to an extra Power Star. The Speedy Comet challenges the player to replay an episode within a varying time limit. The Daredevil Comet has the player replay a section of a level with Mario's maximum health reduced to one unit, meaning that the player must complete the objective without being damaged once. The Cosmic Comet pits the player in a race against a doppelgänger of Mario (or Luigi) to a Power Star. The Fast Foe Comet makes a galaxy's enemies twice as fast and thus harder to avoid. The Purple Comet, accessible only after completing the main story, allots 100 purple coins (or 150, though only 100 have to be collected) across an area of each of the 15 six-star galaxies for the player to collect, sometimes within a time limit. Controls The player's character is controlled via the Wii Remote and Nunchuk. While most of Mario's abilities are taken directly from Super Mario 64, such as the long jump, wall jumps, and a variety of somersaults, Mario is given new moves that take advantage of the Wii Remote's pointer and motion sensing. The most basic feature is the Star Pointer, which appears on-screen (as long as the remote is pointed at the screen) for the entire game and both marks the position of, and is controlled by, the Wii Remote. First and foremost, the Star Pointer is used to pick up special konpeito-shaped objects called "Star Bits", which are then shot to stun enemies, manipulate obstacles, or feed Hungry Lumas. Secondly, the pointer can latch onto small blue objects called "Pull Stars" that gradually pull Mario through space. Thirdly, if the player becomes encased in a floating bubble, the Star Pointer is used to blow air at it in order to influence the direction and speed it moves. At one point, the pointer can be used to clear snow. Luigi controls identically to Mario, but he has both better jumping abilities and less traction, making some areas either less or more challenging when playing through the game the second time. The player gains a new ability early in the game, known as the "Spin" technique, which has previously appeared in varying forms since Super Mario Bros. 3. In Super Mario Galaxy, the Spin is primarily used for melee attacks, as it can stun enemies and shatter objects, and is used to trigger special propellers called "Sling Stars" or "Launch Stars" that launch Mario across large distances through space. The Spin is also used for climbing vines, ice-skating, unscrewing bolts, and for activating several power-ups. Other Wii Remote functions are available for smaller quests, such as surfing aboard a manta ray or balancing atop a large ball and rolling it through an obstacle course. Power-ups and Lives Up until the release of Super Mario Galaxy 2, Super Mario Galaxy featured the most power-ups and transformations of any 3D Mario game. Nine power-ups supply Mario with a special costume that grants him new abilities. For example, special Mushrooms bestow the player with a Bee, Boo, or Spring Suit. The Bee Suit allows Mario to temporarily hover through the air, climb special walls, and walk on clouds and flowers; the Boo Suit allows him to float through the air, as well as become transparent and move through certain obstacles; and the Spring Suit allows him to jump to high areas that would otherwise be inaccessible. The Fire Flower, which allows Mario to throw fireballs, makes its 3D debut, and the all-new Ice Flower lets Mario create hexagonal tiles of ice to cover any liquid surface he walks on and allows him to skate across water and lava. Both flowers grant Mario their respective powers for 20 seconds. The Rainbow Star grants Mario invincibility for 30 seconds, allowing him to destroy any enemies that he touches, jump higher and run faster. The Red Star, which is an optional power-up only accessible after completing a certain mission, allows him to fly for 1 minute. It can be used in the observatory. Mario's health consists of a three-piece power meter, which is depleted by contact with enemies and hazards. When swimming underwater, Mario has an air supply meter, which quickly depletes his main power meter if it runs out. Mario's health can be restored by collecting coins and his air supply by touching bubbles or coins. When the power meter becomes empty, the player loses a life and must go back to a predetermined checkpoint. The power meter can be temporarily expanded to six units through the use of a Life Mushroom, with the maximum health returning to three units if the overall health falls to three units from enemy or hazard contact or if Mario suffers instant death. Instant death can occur by being swallowed by quicksand or dark matter; falling into bottomless pits, which either consist of black holes or leaving a planet's gravitational pull and falling into space; getting crushed between objects; losing a race against a non-player character; or other special challenges. The player can obtain extra lives by collecting 1-Up Mushrooms, 50 Coins without losing a life, or 50 Star Bits. Blue Hungry Lumas (known as "Luma Shops") can also exchange 30 Star Bits for a 1-Up Mushroom or Life Mushroom in certain galaxies,usually before battling a boss, such as in Bowser Jr.'s Airship Armada. Multiplayer Super Mario Galaxy has a co-operative two-player option called "Co-Star Mode", in which one player controls Mario and a Star Pointer while the other uses only the Wii Remote to control a second Star Pointer on-screen to gather Star Bits and shoot them at enemies. Additionally, the second player can make Mario jump, or the height of Mario's jump can be increased if the first and second player press the A button at the same moment. The second player can also prevent some enemies from moving by aiming the pointer star at them and holding the A button. Plot Shortly after Mario is invited to the centennial Star Festival by Princess Peach to celebrate the comet that passes overhead, Bowser invades the Mushroom Kingdom with a surprise attack in a fleet of airships. Summoning a giant flying saucer, Peach's entire castle is removed from its foundations and is lifted into outer space. After an unsuccessful rescue attempt, Mario is catapulted across the cosmos and awakens on a small planet. On the planet, he meets an enchantress named Rosalina and her companion stars, the Lumas. Rosalina is a watcher of the stars, who uses the Comet Observatory to travel across the universe. However, Bowser has stolen all of the Power Stars that act as the Observatory's power source, rendering it immobile. Bestowed with the power to travel through space through one of the Lumas, Mario sets off on a journey across the universe to reclaim the Power Stars and restore power to Rosalina's observatory. Upon collecting enough Power Stars, the Comet Observatory regains the power to transform into a comet and flies to the center of the universe, where Peach is being held captive. Confronting Bowser, Mario learns that Bowser's plan is to rule the entire universe with Peach at his side, using a newly constructed sun of his own via the power of the Grand Stars. Mario manages to defeat Bowser and free Peach; however, in doing so, Bowser's sun collapses into itself, becoming a supermassive black hole that begins consuming everything nearby. All of Rosalina's Lumas jump into the black hole to destroy it, but sacrifice themselves in the process. The black hole collapses into a singularity and explodes in a supernova. Rosalina appears to Mario as a giantess, stating that dying stars are later reborn as new stars. Mario awakens in the restored Mushroom Kingdom, full with all of the creatures he had met in the galaxies, alongside Peach and Bowser, celebrating the new galaxy that has emerged in the skies. Development The concept for Super Mario Galaxy's gameplay originated from ideas taken from Super Mario 128, a tech demo shown at Nintendo Space World in 2000 to exemplify the processing power of the Nintendo GameCube. The demo's director (and director of Super Mario Galaxy), Yoshiaki Koizumi, desired that one of the demo's distinguishing features, spherical-based platforms, would be used in a future game, but was held back in belief that such a feat would be "impossible for technical reasons". Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto suggested to work on the next large-scale Mario game after Nintendo EAD Tokyo finished development on Donkey Kong Jungle Beat in late 2004, pushing for the spherical platform concept to be realized. A prototype of the game's physics system took three months to build, where it was decided that the game's use of spherical platforms would best be suited to planetoids in an outer space environment, with the concept of gravity as a major feature. During development, the designers would often exchange ideas with Miyamoto from his office in Kyoto, where he would make suggestions to the game design. Miyamoto ended up being more involved in the development of Galaxy than he did with Super Mario 64. The game's script was written by Ethan Carlson, though Koizumi was heavily involved in the creation of the story. The idea for Mario to have a "spin" attack came during the early stages of development, when it was decided that jumping on enemies on a spherical map would be difficult for some players. Initially the "spin" was activated via rotation of the Nunchuk's control stick, but after motion sensing was confirmed to be implemented in the Wii Remote, the "spin" was changed to be activated through shaking the controller. Koizumi suggested that Mario's life meter should have a maximum capacity of three instead of eight (which Mario had in the previous two games), but at the same time more 1-Up Mushrooms would be placed in the game and checkpoints would be added, in order to balance the game's difficulty. Satoru Iwata noted "the fact that the intensity factor changes according to whether the life meter is set to 3 or 8 is representative of the things that players do not notice that actually change the gameplay dramatically." It was first hinted by Takashi Tezuka, Nintendo's analysis and development's general manager, that multiplayer was going to be co-op in an interview with gaming site IGN. Two-player functionality was later confirmed, along with reports of the team experimenting with new ways to use the Wii Remote so that one player can control Mario while the other aids him, backed up by suggestions by Miyamoto that the second player could have the ability to affect Mario's progress. It was later revealed at Nintendo's E3 2007 that the co-op mode was permanently implemented into the game and could be accessed at any time. Release In an after-hours press event at E3 2006 in May, Miyamoto stated: "I don't want to promise anything yet. But if it's not a launch title it will definitely be there within the first six months". Nintendo of America's President Reggie Fils-Aime later stated in a November 27, 2006 interview with cable TV network MTV that the game was expected to be released sometime up to Christmas 2007. Near the end of Miyamoto's keynote presentation at the 2007 Game Developers Conference in March, he further confirmed: "You'll be able to play Super Mario Galaxy this year". At Nintendo's E3 2007 conference, it was confirmed that Super Mario Galaxy would be released in North America on November 12, 2007 and four days later in Europe. In North America, certain retailers had given out a free limited edition coin for preordering the game. Some retailers had delayed it until November 13, 2007, such as GameStop in North America, and some retailers had delayed the release until November 14, 2007. Equally, certain UK retailers shipped the game a day earlier than the European release date, for example Virgin megastores and Game. Music During development, Mahito Yokota, who was in charge of the composition of music, originally wanted Super Mario Galaxy to have a Latin style of music and even had 28 tracks completed for the game. The reason for this was that Latin percussion instruments had been used in previous Mario games, such as steelpans, bongo drums, and congas. For Super Mario Galaxy's theme, Yokota used Latin instruments and a synthesizer to create science fiction sounds. The composition was approved by Yoshiaki Koizumi, the game's designer, but when he presented it to Koji Kondo, he told him that his composition was no good. According to Yokota, he always had an image that Mario was for children, causing him to create cute music that would appeal to children. Three months later, Yokota presented three different styles of music to Shigeru Miyamoto. One piece had an orchestral sound, one was a mix of orchestral music and pop music, and the last was pop music. Miyamoto chose the orchestral piece, which was written by Kondo. From then on, the game's soundtrack was composed for a 50-player symphony orchestra. Kondo composed four pieces for the game ("Egg Planet", which plays in the Good Egg Galaxy, and the three "Rosalina in the Observatory" pieces, which play in the Comet Observatory at different points within the game), while Yokota composed the rest. The composers asked the orchestra to play at different tempos in order to perfectly synchronize with the rest of Mario's movement. They also stated that even the sound effects fit into the musical score if the player listens carefully. The official soundtrack was released on January 24, 2008. It was initially an exclusive to Club Nintendo subscribers in Japan, although as of November 2008 both versions of the soundtrack are available from Club Nintendo of Europe. The soundtrack was released in two versions: the Original Soundtrack, which only contains 28 tracks from the game, and the Platinum Edition, which contains an additional 53 tracks on a second disc for a grand total of 81 tracks. The soundtrack has won numerous critic awards, such as "Best Design in Audio" from the U.K.'s Edge Magazine. Reception Super Mario Galaxy has received commercial success and received critical acclaim upon release. By January 2012, Nintendo had sold 10.4 million copies of Super Mario Galaxy worldwide. It is the third best-selling non-bundled Wii game and the seventh best-selling Nintendo-published game for the Wii; the four best-selling Wii games, Wii Sports, Wii Play, Wii Fit, and Mario Kart Wii, were bundled with the console or an accessory. As of July 9, 2008, the game has sold 912,746 copies in Japan, according to Famitsu. According to the NPD Group, since the launch of the Wii, Super Mario Galaxy has become the third best-selling video game in Canada as of April 1, 2008. Super Mario Galaxy is the second highest-rated game of all time on the review aggregator website TopTenReviews, as well as the second highest of all time on review aggregator website GameRankings. The game is the third highest rated game of all-time on Metacritic.Nintendo Power voted in its August 2008 issue that Super Mario Galaxy was the best game for the Wii; it was also the only Mario game to get a top spot on the list, as well as the only game to be unanimously voted for the top position. NTSC-uk said that Super Mario Galaxy "will influence gaming perceptions, sure to replenish any lost passion". GamePro stated that the title "raises the bar in terms of what can be achieved on the Wii." IGN called Super Mario Galaxy "Wii's best game, and an absolute must-own experience", and "one of the greatest platformers ever played." GameSpot praised its gameplay and level design stating: "if ever there were a must-own Wii game, Super Mario Galaxy is it." Game Revolution noted the variety of gameplay, reliable camera angles and easy to use controls. As of January 2012, the game has sold over 10 million copies worldwide, ranking #8 on the best-selling Wii games list. Reviewers have expressed minor complaints with certain aspects of the game. GameSpot editor Alex Navarro found one of the powerups, the spring suit, difficult to control at times. Matt Casamassina of IGN noted that the auto-camera "works well most of the time", but occasionally "stumbles". Towards the end of 2007, Super Mario Galaxy was named Game of the Year by IGN, GameSpot, Nintendo Power, GameTrailers, Edge and Yahoo! Games. On February 7, 2008, the game received the "Adventure Game of the Year" award from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences at the Interactive Achievement Awards. The game placed third in Official Nintendo Magazine's "100 greatest Nintendo games of all time". On March 10, 2009, the game won the "Game of the Year" award at the 5th British Academy Video Games Awards. Guinness World Records ranked Super Mario Galaxy 29th in their list of top 50 console games of all time based on initial impact and lasting legacy. On November 26, 2009, Super Mario Galaxy was named the number one Wii game by IGN. Super Mario Galaxy was also named the Nintendo game of the decade (2000–2009) by both Nintendo Power and Official Nintendo Magazine. Awards and Nominations Links *"Wii: Super Mario Galaxy". Play Magazine. *"Super Mario Galaxy Review". X-Play. *"Wii Review: Super Mario Galaxy". Official Nintendo Magazine. *"Super Mario Galaxy Review". GameZone. *"Super Mario Galaxy - Review". GameTrailers. *"Super Mario Galaxy Review". GamesRadar. *"Super Mario Galaxy Review". GameSpot. *"Super Mario Galaxy Review". Eurogamer. *"Wii Review: Super Mario Galaxy". Computer and Video Games. *"Super Mario Galaxy review". 1UP.com. *Official website *Official Japanese website *Official European website *[http://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/rOhwzYb_mQCENHazWJ9C0aet-KIx3A7P Super Mario Galaxy] at Nintendo.com *[http://us.wii.com/soft_smg.jsp Super Mario Galaxy] at Wii.com Category:2007 video games Category:Most Wanted Games Category:Game of the Year